Thursday 18 October 2018

Rob, Barry, Philip and Karen enjoy morning tea in the sun.

Karen and Philip heading onto a side track.

Leader Karen on the edge of the creek.

Karen followed by Amanda and Philip leads the way up out of one of the creek crossings.

Philip performs ‘spot and pick off’ the leeches of which there were many.

A moss covered felled log with full length split aroused the interest of walkers.

Photos by Karen and Mary

The object of today’s walk was to explore the country west of Turlinjah between the Princes Highway and Little Sugarloaf Road.  This is the Moruya State Forest and also the headwaters of Coila Creek, which eventually flows into Coila Lake.  There are no marked bushwalks out there, but there are a lot of forestry access roads along the ridges, and trail bike tracks crisscrossing the gullies.  To make a walk, Batemans Bay Bushwalkers string together a series of these tracks, sometimes with a bit of bushbashing or creek walking, to form a circuit.  This is how we develop most of our walks because there are very few marked bushwalks in the Eurobodalla Shire.

It was a humid 14 km through some very hilly country.  The stretch along Coila Creek was really enjoyable, especially after the rains.  There are also a number of Sydney Red Gums (Angophora costata), growing along the ridges – not a common tree in our area, so special when you find several stands of them.

Karen